Contact: Lori Stiles
lstiles@u.arizona.edu
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University of Arizona

Mirror Reflection of Cooper Pair Electrons

Caption: Imagine that "A" for Alice (as in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" Alice) represents one kind of electron in a Cooper pair, and that the black cat (you could substitute a Cheshire cat) represents another kind of electron. This fanciful illustration depicts a) how the two electrons in a conventional, or singlet, Cooper pair (Alice-Alice) keep their same symmetry when reflected in a mirror, and b) how the two electrons in an unconventional, or triplet, Cooper pair (Alice-cat) reverse their signs when reflected in a mirror. The newly discovered "exotic" Cooper pair is the quantum mechanical sum of singlet and triplet Cooper pairs, said UA physicist Andrei Lebed. "The exotic Cooper pair does not know what its reflection is: Alice-Alice or Alice-cat."

Credit: Illustration: Natalia Lebed

Usage Restrictions: Give illustration credit: Natalia Lebed

Related news release: UA physicist discovers exotic superconductivity